Building on these insights, “A Soft Place to Land” is an interactive installation guiding visitors through reflection and critique. It examines physical and psychological safety, highlighting disparities faced by different people. Visitors contribute definitions and vote on safety perceptions. The exhibit culminates in a dreamscape—an immersive, stitched-together vision of an inclusive future.
A Soft Place To Land. Where we imagine (public) safer spaces, we begin to build them.
Emma Laura Baylon Ibarra Shirin Kiefer Pia Doreen Rehwald Vanessa Wahls
Student
Emma Laura Baylon Ibarra Shirin Kiefer Pia Doreen Rehwald Vanessa Wahls Academic staff
Jacopo Ammendola Course
Project 1 - Inhabiting Borders Program
MA Eco-Social Design Semester
2024/25 WS What does it mean to feel safe in public? Safety is experienced differently by individuals based on gender, race, and identity. While some move freely, others face surveillance, exclusion, and discrimination.
In our workshop “Oops, Did I Act Like That?”, participants reflected on safety in public spaces, exploring discomfort and marginalization. Through dialogue and collages, they envisioned safer environments.
1/10
2/10
3/10
4/10
5/10
6/10
7/10
8/10
9/10
10/10
1/10
2/10
3/10
4/10
5/10
6/10
7/10
8/10
9/10
10/10
A project made in the course
Project 1 - Inhabiting Borders
Exploring borders at multiple scales as dynamic spaces of transformation, the course examined their impact on social and ecological systems and reimagined them as intersections where disciplines, ideas, and practices converge. Students were encouraged to trespass, explore, and map these boundaries, charting new territories for design and collaboration. The course was divided into three phases. In the first phase, Situating Us and Learning from Each Other, the students engaged with the Don Bosco neighborhood, conducted on-site research, and created a temporary exhibition at La Rotonda (in collaboration with our partner Officina Vispa).
More projects by Emma Laura Baylon Ibarra, Pia Doreen Rehwald, Shirin Kiefer, Vanessa Wahls
Florentina Abendstein, Vanessa Wahls
How can we make sustainable linocut material and color from food waste?
Alice Jade Yorke, Helene Maria Oceana Kunze, Malin Paucke, Pia Doreen Rehwald
What do you need when you feel lonely?
Emma Laura Baylon Ibarra, Irma Ruiz Velasco Monroy, Jule Henschel, Sharon Dor
What ’s happening with happiness?
Shirin Kiefer
What do fruit skins have to do with art?
Explore related projects
Adela Raskova, Alice Jade Yorke, Anna Graziani
Can we create connections that overcome age and language barriers?
Anna Ruth Kaufmann, Elisa Di Rocco
How do words shape reality?
Isolde Vadala
Which kind of stories and worlds lie behind the streets of Don Bosco?
Clara Dolder, Greta Cazzanelli, Greta Wagner-Görmar, Julia Caroline Silvia Ute Tebbe
Can you imagine the potential of unused spaces?
Cemre Oeztuerk, Sharon Dor
What do we create when we fill in the gaps of what we don’t understand?
Emanuele Signorini
Can a simple job alienate you?